Figures
The maternal-to-zygotic transition promotes robust morphogenesis via regulation of the actin cytoskeleton.
During Drosophila cellularization, nuclei of the syncytial embryo are packaged into individual cells to generate an epithelial sheet. In this segmented confocal image, membrane furrows (green) divide nuclei (purple) into cells. Failed cellularization results in multinucleation (orange). We identified two new members of the Vinculin/α-Catenin Superfamily that work together to promote robust cellularization. Spt and Sry-α share redundant actin-regulating activity. Maternal Spt is sufficient for reliable cellularization at optimal conditions. However, both maternal Spt and zygotic Sry-α are required when conditions deviate from optimal. In this way, the maternal-to-zygotic transition ensures the robustness of cellularization via the actin cytoskeleton. See Zheng et al.
Image Credit: Liuliu Zheng, Leonardo A. Sepúlveda, and Anna Marie Sokac.
Citation: (2013) PLoS Genetics Issue Image | Vol. 9(11) November 2013. PLoS Genet 9(11): ev09.i11. https://doi.org/10.1371/image.pgen.v09.i11
Published: November 21, 2013
Copyright: © 2013 Zheng et al. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.
During Drosophila cellularization, nuclei of the syncytial embryo are packaged into individual cells to generate an epithelial sheet. In this segmented confocal image, membrane furrows (green) divide nuclei (purple) into cells. Failed cellularization results in multinucleation (orange). We identified two new members of the Vinculin/α-Catenin Superfamily that work together to promote robust cellularization. Spt and Sry-α share redundant actin-regulating activity. Maternal Spt is sufficient for reliable cellularization at optimal conditions. However, both maternal Spt and zygotic Sry-α are required when conditions deviate from optimal. In this way, the maternal-to-zygotic transition ensures the robustness of cellularization via the actin cytoskeleton. See Zheng et al.
Image Credit: Liuliu Zheng, Leonardo A. Sepúlveda, and Anna Marie Sokac.